The World

China has ordered 11 Americans affiliated with a U.S. evangelical group to leave the country for distributing religious materials, officials in Beijing said. They said the missionaries, belonging to the Latter Reign Ministry of Litchfield, Ill., had their passports seized Saturday by agents of the Public Security Bureau in the southwestern city of Kunming. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said that religious materials were seized and that 11 in the group were ordered to leave the country by Friday. Tutwiler said a 12th member was permitted to stay.